Adaptability is a skill I quickly developed graduating from Champlain Valley Union High School in 2020 when Covid-19 struck. I followed my intuition and adapted my plans from going away to college to instead study locally at the University of Vermont (UVM). While completing my freshman year of classes remotely, I channeled my creative energy into writing articles for my local newspaper, The Charlotte News, as a volunteer contributor – a role I continued from my junior year of high school. 

 

For my sophomore year, I studied abroad in Italy, spending a semester in Florence and Rome each. While abroad, I spoke Italian and traveled as much as I could so as to learn the most from my experiences. 

 

I entered my junior year at UVM filled with new perspectives and inspiration, excited to push my writing and creativity forward. I was inducted into UVM’s chapter of The National Society of Leadership and Success, where I developed my leadership skills in a peer success networking team. I also professionally presented my own work at UVM’s annual ENGS and FTS Student Research Symposium. On the poetry panel, I shared four original poems that worked to reimagine stories – a theme I later came back to with my Honors thesis. 

 

Senior year, I built on my creative thought, analytical writing, and research experiences to raise them to a new level with my undergraduate Honors thesis, “In a Land Where Kingdoms Lay: Gender and Sexuality in European Fairy Tales through Analysis and Poetry.” My thesis was two parts: writing an analytical essay and creating a body of original poetry that together, illustrated and deconstructed the themes I found. I defended my thesis to a panel of three professors and received the highest rating. In May, 2024, I graduated from the University of Vermont with Honors in English. 

 

During the fall of 2024, I was an intern reporter with VTDigger – the largest newsroom in Vermont – which showed me how I can act locally while thinking globally to engage with my community. Simultaneous with my internship, I was also a teacher’s assistant for a Community College of Vermont English composition dual enrollment course being taught at my old high school, as well as for a kids handbuilding clay class at the Shelburne Craft School. I am now continuing my role as a teacher's assistant for another semester of the English class and another session of the kid's program. I hope to have future experiences that will expand my perspectives and ideas. My goal is to attend graduate school in an English Master's program in my future on my way to pursuing my PhD and teaching at the high school or college level.